Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/268

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
254
LETTERS TO AND FROM


Israel? God forbid: As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not[1]."





FROM SIR JOHN BROWNE.


REV. SIR,
APRIL 4, 1728.


BY a strange fatality, though you were the only person in the world from whom I would conceal my being an author, yet you were unaccountably the only one let into the secret of it: the ignorant poor man who was entrusted by me to deliver out the little books[2], though he kept the secret from all others, yet, from the nature of the subject, concluded that I could have no interest in concealing it from you, who were so universally known to be an indefatigable promoter of the welfare of Ireland. But, though the accident gave me some uneasiness at first; yet, when I consider your character, I cannot doubt (however slender the foundation of such a hope may be from any merits of my own) your generosity will oblige you to conceal what chance

  1. I Sam. chap, xiv, ver. 45.
  2. This treatise was, "A Memorial of the poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen, and Labourers, of the Kingdom of Ireland;" to which Dr. Swift immediately published an answer, dated March 25, 1728; and printed in this collection, vol. ix, p. 209.
has